Apr 2007

Leute, jetzt sind wir auf den Galapagos Inseln und morgen geht unsere einwöchige "Kreuzfahrt" um die Inseln herum los. Die Schiffsfahrt haben wir hier vor Ort durch ein Last-Minute Angegot buchen können. Es ist dadurch etwas billiger geworden, aber der Preis ist immer noch lang entfernt von wirklich billig. Das Boot, "Florentina", ist relativ klein, 16 Passagiere, und zur Besatzung gehören ausser dem gewöhnlichem Schiffspersonal, ein Koch und sein Hilfspersonal, ein Naturalist und ein Divemaster. Wir werden dann an den unterschiedlichen Inseln anlegen und mit dem Naturalisten Naturausflüge machen. Ausserdem werden wir fünf Tauchgänge machen, um auch die Unterwassertierwelt bewundern zu können. Man kann hier, von riesen Schildkröten über Pinguine, Wasser- und Landleguane, Albatrosse, Seelöwen, Delfine, Hammerhaie und etliches mehr, eine einmalige Tierwelt sehen.

Mehr dazu seht ihr hier in ungefähr einer Woche.

Bis denne, lasst es euch gut gehen in der alten Heimat.

Liebe Grüsse,

Sabrina und Fredrik

PS: Harald, der Gelbfüssler und unser Tauchbuddy von Roatan, Honduras, ist übrigens auch wieder mit dabei. Wir haben uns bereits in Panama City getroffen und sind zusammen nach Quito in Ecuador geflogen und dann weiter hierhin. Bis zum 15. Mai reisen wir noch zusammen.

Of course it had to happen one day!!! We were so stupid, at the wrong place and at the wrong time. We got mugged!!!!

The day started really nicely, we took a taxi out to la Isla Flamenco which is connected to Panama City by a causeway. We walked the causeway, watching inline skaters, cyclists, joggers, walkers etc. and stopped for lunch at one of the nice restaurants that they have along the causeway. From there we wanted to visit a place called Mi Pueblitos to see life-size replicas of typical Panamanian rural villages. On the map it looked quite close from the restaurant so we decided to walk there. We strolled all the way down the causeway which is a really nice area. Then we reached a nodal point where lots of streets crossed with each other. We thought, “we better take a taxi before we get lost”. We tried to get one but there was no taxi passing by and then we got back to the idea to walk since it was so close anyway. So we kept walking, up a curved bridge like street which only had a small strip beside the road, so we were able to walk on it. We went down the bridge like street and came to a six-lane street which was divided in half by a grass covered strip of about a 10 meter-width.

We crossed the first part of the street from right to left to get to the green strip in between the roads. We kept walking heading further left in order to cross the next part of the street. We saw already to our right a quite worn down neighborhood which was separated from the big street by a wire-mashed fence and we were walking away from it, in fact we never entered the neighborhood. Well, that didn’t help much, after a short while walking on the green strip, we saw out of the corner of our eyes that there were two guys approaching us. By the way, I forgot to mention, you might have figured already, on the three-lane street in each direction, there were cars passing by with quite high speed. Well, two guys were approaching us kind of diagonally from behind. When they went faster we figured they were after us. We tried to run off but they were already too close. One big guy, colored, tall and quite athletic approached Fredrik trying to take his camera bag. Then in the same instant another guy, mid-size and slim tried to snatch away my bag. Everything went really quick and we hardly remember the following seconds. We both had the bags around our necks so in the beginning it wasn’t too easy for the bad guys to snatch them away. Somehow we both, Fredrik and myself, moved together with the attackers in a fight over the bags about 10 m from our original location, though in opposite directions. Fredrik moved to the left and I to the right having the attackers in front of us while trying very hard to pull away our bags. After seconds of struggling, I ended up on my knees on the road. I looked up to my right and saw a car coming at me. I got dead scared and let go off the bag. Seconds later I got off the road looked around and could see Fredrik fighting with the big athletic guy at the edge of the road about 15 m away from me. Fredrik told me later that moments before, while the attacker tried to snatch away the camera bag, both were on the road and a car came to stop right in front of them. Fredrik could pull himself off the attacker but the mugger, while almost climbing over the hood of the stopped car came after Fredrik right away. They were fighting at the edge of the road and nobody of the people in the cars made an attempt to help us. By that time there were about 8 cars that stopped to watch the spectacle. Fredrik at the end, worried about me, let go the camera bag so that the muggers would run off and let us alone. In the same moment while I saw the guy running off with our camera bag I shout at him: “Bastard!!! You go to hell!!!” I don’t think that he cared, but it felt good to shout out.

The driver of one of the cars that had stopped took us right away to the closest police station. There we explained what had happened. The police men made notes on a scrap piece of paper and alarmed their patrolling colleagues to check out the scene. In a police car, we were driven back to where the attack happened and moments later they drove with us through the bad neighborhood to see if we would recognize the muggers somewhere. Of course, since it all went so fast we couldn’t remember the faces of the attackers and it was impossible for us to recognize them. The police men drove us to the bad neighborhood’s police station where we again had to tell them our story, first to a younger police guy and then to an older one. Both made their notes on scrap pieces of paper. How professional and trustworthy, don’t you think!!!

Each and every police man, who we had told our story, asked almost surprised if the attackers hadn’t used any weapons such as guns or knifes. They explained that the neighborhood is a declared “red zone” where the possession and use of arms is a common thing. So we were lucky to some extent!!!

The police station itself was quite interesting to experience. Right away when we entered, we were hit by a penetrating acid urine smell, we saw a small door opening to our right shut with some heavy metal bars and behind the bars we could see in the background some dark creatures, prisoners, hanging around and in the front right behind the bars another captive starring at us while we made our report about the attack.

From the bad neighborhood police station they drove us to another place where we finally could make an official report of the mugging. For the fourth time we had to tell our story and at the end we got a copy of the official report. We figured that with that work done the police considered their work for the case done as well, leaving us without any hope to recover what was stolen from us. The most valuable things that were taken are a set of CD´s with our photos from Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which we had with us because we wanted to send them home to Europe, and our digital SLR camera with both lenses and three memory cards. Well, at the end these are only material things and we know that we were lucky to get out of this with just some bruises, abrasions and the mere shock.

Unfortunately, the attack has been shadowing everything we did in Panama and it has not really become a favorite place for us. Pretty understandable, I guess. Panama is a shithole. (Fredriks comment).

Take care, amigos, and stay safe!!!

Lots of love,

Sabrina and Fredrik

PS: By the way, on our way from Panama City to Quito in Ecuador, they stole my glasses and contact lenses case from my backpack while it was transported on the plane. Luckily, I still have my contact lenses and another pair of glasses. We’ll see what will be missing next.

The photos remaining from our small camera can be seen here.

Es fing alles schon fantastisch an. Die Reise bis zur Bahía (Bucht) Drake war traumhaft. Von San Jose bis nach Sierpe sind wir mit Bus gekommen, mit einmal Umsteigen, und von Sierpe sollte es dann mit Boot weitergehen. Wir waren so gegen 17.00 Uhr in Sierpe und uns wurde erzählt, dass leider kein Boot mehr bis nach Drake fahren würde. Wie durch einen Zufall und mit viel Glück haben wir dann aber doch noch jemanden gefunden, der uns bis nach Drake, direkt am Pazifik, fahren konnte. Die Fahrt hat etwas mehr als eine Stunde gedauert und die Umgebung war einfach traumhaft. Den grössten Teil der Strecke fährt man auf dem Río (Fluss) Sierpe und am Ende auf dem Pazifischem Meer. Das Flussufer wird von Mangrovenwäldern und Palmen umsäumt und wir hatten Glück, da gerade die Sonne am Horizont wunderschön unterging. Als wir dann in Drake waren haben wir uns in einer einfachen aber guten Behausung untergebracht.

Am folgenden Tag haben wir es erstmal ruhig angehen lassen. Wir haben nett gefrühstückt mit Ted aus Minnesota, unserem neuen Nachbarn, und haben dann auf einer kleinen Entdeckungstour zwei Hunde am Strand kennengelernt. Dort waren wir dann schön im Pazifik schwimmen und haben uns ein wenig in der Sonne geaalt. Später sind wir dann wieder zurück ins Dörfchen gewandert, um dort in den Hängematten weiter zu aalen, lesen, dösen, schlummern, mmmm…, wie schön. PURA VIDA, wie man so schön sagt in Costa Rica, DAS REINSTE LEBEN.

Am darauffolgenden Tag haben wir dann eine Tour in den Nationalpark Corcovado geplant, der angeblich einer der wohlbehaltensten Naturschutzparks Costa Ricas ist mit feuchtem Tropenwaldbestand. Erst sind wir mit dem Boot zur Rangerstation “Sirena” gefahren, die mitten im Naturschutzpark liegt. Von dort aus haben wir eine Tour mit fünf weiteren Leuten und einem Naturalisten durch den Dschungel gemacht. Das war echt klasse. Wir haben ganz viele Affen gesehen, Brüllaffen, Totenkopfaffen und noch eine andere Sorte, die mir jetzt aber nicht einfällt, Krokodile, Arakangas (Papageien), Spechte, Adler und noch viele andere Vögel. Das aufregenste war allerdings als wir auf einmal von etlichen Wildschweinen umzingelt waren. Laut unserem Guide waren es zwischen 40 und 50 Wildschweine und die sahen nicht unbedingt gutgelaunt aus. Die stanken extrem und haben uns immer nur doof angeguckt. Wir haben uns sehr ruhig verhalten, da diese Dinger auch recht aggresiv werden können. Wir hatten uns auch schon jeder einen Baum zum raufklettern ausgeguckt, falls es denn zum Angriff kommen sollte. Nach ungefähr 20 Minuten sind die Schweine allerdings wieder abgezogen und haben “nur” einen ekelhaften Gestank hinterlassen. Später haben wir dann unseren Guide gefragt, ob die Wildschweine normalerweise angreifen würden. Der meinte dann, eigentlich nur wenn sie in Gruppen zwischen 100 und 200 auftreten. Da waren wir ja angenehm froh, dass wir nur 50 der fiesen Schweine getroffen haben.

Auf unserem Rückweg von der Rangerstation bis nach Drake, wieder mit Boot, haben wir dann einige Delfine gesehen, die neben und vor dem Boot hergeschwommen sind. Das war klasse!! Wir haben sogar ein gutes Foto machen können.

Alles in allem, Drake und der Nationalpark Corcovado waren spitzenmässig. Wir haben es sehr genossen und können einen Besuch nur wärmstens empfehlen.

Viele liebe Grüsse,

Sabrina und Fredrik

PS: Wir haben wunderschöne Fotos von den Affen , Vögeln und Schweinen mit unserer grossen Kamera (mit Teleobjektiv) machen können, die uns aber leider samt Kamera in Panama City gestohlen wurden. Mehr dazu, seht ihr im folgendem Bericht.

PS: Die Fotos, die uns von der kleineren Kamera geblieben sind, könnt ihr hier sehen.

We ended up in San Jose just because all the buses in Costa Rica go through the capital so we had to stay for a night and took the chance to take a look at the city. San Jose feels quite small for a capital city (somehow, we always end up comparing the cities with Mexico City, no wonder that everything else seems so small.) and for that reason it made it quite pleasant. The city has some good eating places and some nice buildings, of which the nicest was the Teatro Nacional. Since we were in a “big” city, we couldn’t resist going to the movies. We saw the movie “300” which is about the Spartan warriors and where each scene of the movie seems a piece of art. Quite impressive!

Take care for now,

Sabrina and Fredrik

Since we are kind of running out of time, we have decided to just more or less travel through Costa Rica and later on through Panama. We managed though to see San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, (see next report) and the peninsula Osa where we hiked in the National Park Corcovado, one of Costa Rica’s most unspoiled areas (see next report).

So we just spent 5 days in Costa Rica and it might seem difficult to define what the country is like but from the impressions we have got we can say it is somewhat different to the rest of Central America. First of all you notice that the country is richer and that tourism has been around for quite a while. Everything is that well arranged for the tourists, tours, transport, hotel etc. that it almost seems too much. It somehow takes the fun out of it if everything is presented to you on a plate and if everybody tries to speak English with you. You see a lot of gringos in Costa Rica and people who go for a two or three week vacation. The prices are correspondingly higher in Costa Rica, well we are comparing only with the rest of Central America.

The little we saw of the landscape while travelling through Costa Rica was beautiful though, very green and well taken care off. You see less garbage in the ditches or elsewhere and people seem happy and carefree. The busses are in very good shape (compared to Central American standard) and connect even the small villages of the country.

Read more about our stays in San Jose and Bahia Drake (Corcovado National Park) in the following reports.

Bye for now!

Sabrina and Fredrik

PS: By the way, who could have imagined that it would be more difficult to leave a country than to enter it? When we tried to get out of Costa Rica at the Panama border we were not able to do so because the power was down and with that also the computer system of the border officials. We heard rumors that the whole country was without power though others said only half of the country. After a couple of hours they kind of sorted it out by checking our passports via telephone and so we got our stamps and were able to leave Costa Rica at the end.